Birth of Islam

Introduction

I’m here to talk to you about something that is controversial, something that is sensitive, but something that is extremely relevant, and you know that, and that’s why you’re here. And I want to thank you for being here, especially if you’re a visitor. If you stand at the seashore, you’re either looking at a rising tide or a lowering tide. And if you look long enough, and if you examine closely and you know what to look for, you can after a while determine whether the tide is lowering or whether it’s rising. Well, in American culture, for several decades in our society and our time, there was a rising tide. A rising tide of events, of movements, but we didn’t notice until one date in September of 2001. When you look at this map of the Middle East, what do you think of?

Well, if you are a news junkie, you may be thinking of the recent democratic uprisings, places like Libya and Egypt. You may think if you filled up your car today with gasoline, you may be thinking of the vital oil supply for the whole world that comes out of parts of the Middle East. As a Bible student, you may be thinking of the events of the Old New Testament that are concentrated in this region of the world. You may think about the presence of the United States militarily or business-wise in the Middle East. And you also may think about radical Islamic terrorism, which in some ways has a home in the Middle East and is manifest there. You also may think of the Middle East as being a source of immigrants because, as well as other parts of the world, we have seen over the last century more and more, and especially last half century, more and more immigrants come from countries in the Middle East into the United States.

And actually, all of those things have a connection to events in the last half century. And all of that represented a rising tide. But it was really 9-11 that was a tidal wave that got everybody’s attention. And I’m sure you’re like me that after 9-11, you began to have questions about the religion of Islam. And you also may have started forming opinions and conclusions about the religion of Islam, even very soon, days after that. But here is the reality that we live in. Things have not changed since 9-11. There is still a rising tide. In other words, this American society and our culture has now interconnected with the culture of the Middle East, and there is no separation anytime soon. There is an interrelation between the two, economically, politically, socially, even religiously, that now we are part of the Middle Eastern landscape, and the culture of the Middle East is part of our landscape, and that’s just the new reality.

And at the center of the Middle East is a force that is connected to economics, it’s connected to politics, but of course, it is the main religious force in the Middle East, and that is Islam. And how are we to think about these things that have been developing over the last half century? And what are we to do regarding Islam and our interaction with the Middle East and our, in a way, not just interaction, but confrontation with Islam. Well, the real premise this weekend is that we should respond to these things like a Christian should. Primarily and most importantly, we should think, we should respond, we should act in a lot of these things like a Christian is supposed to. And so that’s why I’ve come this weekend to talk to you about a guide to understanding Islam, but a Christian’s guide to understanding Islam.

And I want to really thank those who are visiting with us. There are certainly people in this audience who are Christians. You know that I’m a Christian. I’m not Muslim. And you know sort of where this is going. But we may have people here tonight who are not Christians. We may even have people here, or at least at some point this weekend, who are not Muslims. And this is an open door here. This is an open assembly. This is a public gathering. And we live in a society where there is freedom of speech, and I am very blessed to be able to stand here and talk about this. I didn’t have to get a permit from the government. I wasn’t inspected when I came into the state of Florida, that we have the freedom to get up and discuss these things.

And so we need to appreciate that opportunity and use it properly and use it wisely. I’m interested in accuracy regarding this. And I’m interested in fairness regarding this. But also I’m interested in being right regarding this. And I’m sure you share that, and you’re interested in that too. And that we welcome that you’re here if you’re a visitor. And we appreciate so much what that says about you and being interested in these things. And in a way, this is somewhat unnecessary, but it helps us to focus our attention to talk at first about why we do this. What’s the reason for this series? Well, to develop the proper biblical view of events that are around us. For good or for ill, regarding the events that surround us, whether they be local events or national events or international events, we are greatly shaped by the media.

We look at these events through their eyes, and oftentimes through their filter. And sometimes it’s very profitable, but the reality is that it’s their eyes. And so one of the things I want to encourage you to do this weekend is try to sort of uh wipe away some of the fog and wipe away some of the filter, and to look at these things afresh and to look at it from a biblical standpoint. And to realize that as we do in a very you know, in a cultural way, but also in a more and more personal way. We interact with the Islamic faith regarding things we hear, regarding people that we we get to know and relationships that we develop, whether in the neighborhood or at work or what at school or whatever, that we need to be prepared for contact with those who have been affected by the Islamic faith.

There are people who are dedicated Muslims across the world, including those who live in the United States. There are others who have grown up and been affected by the culture of Islam, but they would even say about themselves, they’re not a devout Muslim. Maybe they’re not even a Muslim at all, but they have been affected by, they have been influenced by the Islamic faith. And as Christians, and that’s really our perspective this weekend to address this as Christians. And even if you’re not a Christian, to consider at least this perspective is that we need to be prepared to interact with those who have been affected by the Islamic faith. We are placed here as lights. Jesus came to open doors, not to build walls. Indeed, there were those who rejected Jesus, and there were negative consequences, the consequences of things that he taught and things that he did.

1. An Approach Driven by Investigation and Understanding

But Jesus’ main intent was to try to open up doors with people. And with more and more interaction with people who have been affected by Islam, that’s how we need to approach things. Looking for doors, not trying to build walls. That’s the Christian thing to do. And so as we prepare for that contact, we need to approach it in the model of Christ. Now, let me explain a little bit about the approach this weekend. It is driven by investigation. Spiritual matters are a matter of life and death. But not like the typical life and death matters, like, you know, wearing seat belts and eating healthily and things like that. No, this is a matter of eternal life and death. This is real life and death. Anything related to spiritual matters and religious matters.

And so, since it’s of the utmost importance, we’ve got to approach any religious matter with thorough investigation. We can’t glance at it, we can’t slap at it, we can’t just skip over it. Anything related to our soul, our standing before God, and our destiny regarding eternity, we’ve got to treat it with great care and investigation. We can’t be apathetic. But this goes hand in hand. And that’s why I’ve entitled the series, and I’ve tinkered with it for ten years exactly what to call it, and this is sort of where I’ve landed: A Christian’s Guide to Understanding Islam, because I think that is the main starting point where most people need to be regarding the subject. I want you to consider a couple of New Testament examples that are great, great examples to imitate.

When the Apostle Paul was traveling and preaching, he came to Berea, and this is what he encountered in Acts of 17th chapter in verse 11. That these were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Before these people made a conclusion about whether they agreed or disagreed with Paul, what did they do? They investigated, which we’ve already noted, and they sought to understand what he was saying. Before we accept something or reject something, we have to understand it. Now that sounds very simple. But there are a lot of things in a lot of areas of life, including religion, where people will accept something or reject something and they don’t understand it.

And that can’t be with anything regarding our soul. And certainly I want you to consider that should not be the case with Islam. We see over later on in this very same chapter that Paul comes to the seat of Greek learning and philosophy, Athens. And he’s invited to speak to a group of Athenian philosophers. Paul, the trained Jewish rabbi, who is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, stands before some of the great minds of Greek philosophy. And he’s trying to open the door.

They were curious. They wanted to investigate. That’s good. And we see later on that Paul stood in the midst of the Areopachus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. And not just this opening statement, but all through Paul’s speech to these people, he showed that he understood Greek thought, Greek culture, Greek philosophy. He even quoted one of their poets to make one of his points. Paul understood these people, even though he didn’t agree with them. Even though he’s trying to persuade them to become believers in Jesus the Christ, but he understood where they were at. And this is such an important example. And I want you to consider something. When Paul stood in Athens and spoke to these people, the difference between this trained Jewish rabbi who is now a Christian and a preacher of the gospel, the difference between him and these Athenian, polytheistic, humanistic philosophers, that divide was greater than the divide between Christians and Muslims.

The things that he believed and the things they believed, there was a greater gap between them than there is between Christians and Muslims. And I don’t think you can read Acts 17 and conclude that Paul is doing any compromising. But what Paul is doing is he’s starting a dialogue. And he’s sharing openly what he believes, and he’s making his point, and he’s making it very passionately here. But yet he starts off understanding these people and relating to them. That’s an excellent model for us. Unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of work to get to that point. And it’s understandable. Because of violent acts that have been committed. Because of deep emotional responses. Because of prejudice. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding. However, we have to first understand something before we make a conclusion about it.

Accepting or rejecting. And so that’s why we’ve got to investigate. We’ve got to make the attempt to understand. But we have to finish the job. We do have to make a fair but a rigorous comparison and then make conclusions. We cannot sit on the fence on this because it is a matter of eternal life and death. We do have to make decisions. We have to take a stand, we have to make assessments. We have to judge things. And that’s why we have to start off with investigation and understanding. If you go right to the conclusion, that’s a very foolish attempt. That’s a very foolish way to approach anything. We have to investigate, you have to understand, but then you have to complete the job. There are a lot of voices who say there has to be more understanding and more listening, and that’s true, and that’s good.

But also, because these matters are so important, we have to make conclusions. But we make them after the investigation and after the understanding. You know, you need to know what you believe and why you believe it. But you also need to know why you don’t believe something. And that’s what we’re trying to do this weekend. There’s a great statement that Paul wrote as he’s guided by the Spirit of God in 1 Thessalonians 5. He says in verse 21, test all things. Hold fast what is good. You investigate, you understand it, and then you grab a hold of what is valuable. You seize what is true, and you hold to that. May God help us to do that in this series in all ways. What are we going to do this weekend?

Well, if you’ve looked at the advertisement, you sort of know the steps that we’re going to take. We’re going to start off tonight and work at this also in the morning, examining the background and the religion of Islam, understanding historically how it started, how it spread, to understand better also the Arab Islamic culture. This is an expression that I’m going to use a lot this weekend. Because Islam is the religion, but it is married to a certain culture, ethnic culture. And we’re going to make those distinctions later on, but it’s fair to put this together because it does go together, the Arab culture and the Islamic faith. And to comprehend the specifics about what Muslims believe and what they practice, especially in light of things commonly that are taught and practiced by those who are following after Jesus Christ.

Now, this is the groundwork right here. And this really covers things we will do tonight, and Lord willing, the two lessons in the morning. And these are different kinds of lessons. These are not the kinds of lessons you typically hear from this pulpit. These are not the typical lessons that I do on a Sunday. They’re unique. Because we have to do a lot of homework to do the investigation and to understand Islam. And so that’s why we’ve got to talk about history and talk about events and look at quotes and consider things that have developed through time and look at this culture and understand it. And you have to trust me on this. It’s when you do this groundwork and this homework that then when we move to the latter part, it pays off.

Because Sunday, we’re going to compare the Bible to the Quran and Jesus and Mohammed. Is the Bible of God? Is the Quran of God? What’s the evidence? Is Jesus the spokesman of God? Or is Mohammed the seal of the prophet? What evidence is there to believe one or the other? And so those are the things we’re going to look at. And so that’s why you have to invest the time and invest the energy. And it is. It’s an investment of time and energy. And I appreciate the elders here giving me this much time and going right into the lesson and doing it lecture style because this is a lot of work. Because most of us start at a very elementary level or a very preschool level when it comes to this subject.

We’ve got to freely admit that. And so we got a lot of work to do. But if you do that work and if somehow you can’t make it and you get a copy of the lessons to listen to, I would recommend the audio. I don’t have a face for TV like Bob Harkrider. Okay. I’ve got a face for radio. But I would recommend that you get that, because then the things that we will do Sunday in comparing Jesus and Muhammad and the Bible and the Quran, the light bulbs will start to go off. Because once we lay the groundwork, then things begin to fall in place and we’re prepared to make that comparison. It’s an investment, and I appreciate you making it. And I trust it will be worth your time and your energy.

2. Arabia in the 6th Century and Muhammad’s Birth

This is Mount Hera, which is situated just outside of Mecca, which lies on the southwestern coast, coastal area of the peninsula of Arabia. And on this mountain in 610 AD, approximately 600 years after the time of Jesus, there is something that, according to Muslim tradition, took place. And it is a major event. Who is involved in what happened? Well, let’s talk about this time. Arabia in the 6th century A.D. was in a relative dark age. Compared to the general Greco Roman world that you read about in the New Testament, the world of the Mediterranean of the Greek culture and the Roman government. The people who lived in Arabia were almost cut off from that. It was not an advanced society. And it’s in this culture at this time that a man Muhammad is born.

And what was dominant at this time in Arabia was Bedouin tribal life. That they were these tribes or clans that made up the Arabian desert. And that it was a very structured society. Fragmented. There was no unity among the Arabs. You almost would not call them Arabs. They were so splintered that you couldn’t really identify them hardly as a people. They were very fragmented. It was a very warring culture. They would have raids on each other. They would have raids up into what we would call today Syria and Iraq and even Palestine for goods. And in this society, it was very patriarchy, and it was also very authoritative. And the tribal chieftain had absolute authority, and nobody questioned him.

And it sort of stimulated the economy a little bit, but also it opened it up to other people and other cultures. And what about this area religiously? Well, it’s very polytheistic. They believed in various nature gods the sun god, the moon god, rain god and wind, and all these different kinds of gods, very similar to the culture that you read about in the Old Testament when the people of Israel came into the land of Canaan. They also would have idols. Usually these idols were fairly small in size. They were portable. They were sometimes called household idols. They’re like the idols you read about in the book of Genesis regarding Jacob and his family and Laban and that incident there. And they would carry these idols with them.

The worship centered in Mecca. And frequently they would bring their idols to Mecca. And there was usually an annual pilgrimage in Mecca where they would bring many of these idols. And they would place these idols in a building called the Kaaba. It was a black squared building made out of stone. We’ll talk more about this structure later. But this structure called the Kaaba was sort of the centerpiece of their polytheistic, their idolatrous worship. And this annual pilgrimage was not just important to them religiously. This is an opportunity for them to trade, trade in their herds and their flocks. They would even trade slaves, trade wives. And so this was a time of not just, you know, religious devotion and practice, but also it was uh it was a gathering.

And as a result, the people would uh, you know, the people in Mecca, especially, this is very important to their economy. It really stimulated it. Around the time of the birth of Mohammed, there was beginning to be the idea that among the many gods they believed in, there was one God that was sort of the primary God. His name was Allah in their language, and he was seen as the originator, the creator. Yes, there is a God that controls the wind, and a guy controls the sun and things like that, but it was Allah who was the starter. It was Allah who brought all these things into existence. It’s this culture into which Muhammad is born in 570 A.D. You can see that being there just a little under 600 years after the time of Jesus Christ.

Mohammed was born in a very troubling situation before he was even born. His father died. Shortly after he was born, his mother died. His grandfather had care of him, and not long after that, a few years after that, his grandfather died. Finally, his uncle adopted him, which was very fortunate for Mohammed because his uncle was part of the ruling class in Mecca. His uncle had resources, he had some wealth, but more importantly, his uncle had influence in Mecca. And this afforded Mohammed a lot of good opportunities. He worked in his uncle’s caravans and with his uncle’s herds, even did some book bookkeeping for his uncle. And he also traveled with his uncle up into Syria, where he was exposed for the first time to people who were Jews and Christians.

And he was very moved by this journey up into Syria. He was a very hard-working young man. He was tall, had broad shoulders, and he had a nickname, the trustworthy one, because he was the kind of young man that if you need the job done, he was the man that you would give it to, and he was faithful to execute his responsibilities. At the age of 25, he met through business activities, and he married a woman who was widowed who had great possessions. She was rich. Her name was Kadijah. And this changed his life. Because now it meant that he didn’t have to work as hard. And he was not consumed with all of his responsibilities. He was known for meditating for his time alone and his spiritual reflections.

3. Muhammad’s Calling and the Message of One God

And this gave him a chance to do that. And then it happened. While he was meditating one day, and he was on Mount Hira, according to Muslim tradition, in 6.10, he got his calling to be a prophet. In a cave at Mount Hera, Muhammad was meditating, and Muslim tradition says he heard a voice. A voice that said, Recite. In the name of thy Lord, who createth, createth men from a clot, recite. And thy Lord is the most bounteous, who teacheth by the pen, teacheth man that which he knew not. Well, typically, like a person would, if you hear voices and nobody’s around, it troubles you. And it troubled Muhammad. He thought maybe he was going insane. He thought maybe he was hearing evil spirits, which was commonly believed to exist by Arabian people.

But after a conversation he had with his wife’s cousin, who was some kind of Christian, he came to the conclusion with her nudging that he was actually being called to be a prophet of God. And he began to accept the belief that this was God talking to him. And according to Muslim tradition, this is the beginning of the revelations. That this revelation was sent to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel and beginning in 610, and for the next 22 years, he received revelations from God. We’ll talk more about things that he was told. But in essence, what, according to Muslim teaching was happening, is that God was correcting the religious thinking of people and also trying to lead the Arabian people to true belief in him through the words of Muhammad, that God had chosen Muhammad to set things right.

And what was it? What was it that was taught by Muhammad? Well, over the next 22 years, he gets the teachings, but he does not form a volume himself. His followers would hear what he would say, and they would write down his quotes. Muhammad probably wrote some of these quotes himself. But many of these things were written down by those who heard him. They wrote them on pieces of bark and pieces of stone and pieces of animal skin. And it was after Mohammed died, remember this. It was after Mohammed died, that in the years following, that his followers gathered up all these sayings and compiled them into a volume known as the Quran. We’ll talk more about the Quran in the morning, but in essence, what the Quran is saying over and over and over is there’s one God.

That the chief message of Mohammed in this culture was to turn the Arabian people to the belief there’s only one God, that all these many gods you worship, all these idols that you worship, that idolatry is wrong, and the belief in multiple gods is wrong, there is only one God. He is Allah. And understand that monotheism in 670 AD, or I’m sorry, 570 AD, 610 AD, when he began to get the revelations, that monotheism was just now beginning to catch on in the world. That in the Old Testament, up to the time of Christ, that monotheism had pretty much been owned by the Hebrews. They were about the only people, just about the only people who believed in one God in the world. And then Christ came.

And then the Roman world turned to belief in Christ. And that was the real turning point because now we live in a world today that is heavily monotheistic. Whether a person is a Jew, a Christian, or a Muslim, they are monotheists. Polytheists, and along with it, the use of idols is a fairly rare thing in the world today. And so this is a real turning point. And especially in Arabian culture, polytheism ruled the day. And so the message, there’s only one God, was a radical revolutionary message for him to preach. The Quran states this over and over. As well as that Muhammad was his prophet. He’s sometimes called the apostle or the messenger in the Quran. And over and over and over in the Quran, you see the attributes of God listed, his mercy, his power, his majesty, his wisdom.

And then over and over in the Quran, you have references to the fact that unbelievers, those who reject the belief there’s only one God, Allah, that they’re the infidels and they’re going to be punished. And right there is one of the controversies, okay. And that is what is an infidel. In most references in the Quran, an infidel is a person who rejects the belief in one God. Which means a person who’s a Jew or a Christian would not be an infidel. But you know how words are.

And express in a in a positive light, more on that later on. These are some of the things Muhammad was teaching that were written down in the Quran. And it’s a good time to make this distinction about what these expressions mean. Islam means simply submission. And Islam is the name for the religion. Muslim, and that’s really our common English expression for it. You know, most Muslims would say Muslim. But, you know, we pronounce it Muslim in our society, and that’s how I pronounce it. But a Muslim is somebody who submits. It’s one who follows the religion of Islam. And so understand that Muslim is a description for the person who’s the follower of Islam, and Islam is the expression for the religion. Well, immediately, Mohammed was opposed.

His converts at first were very few. His wife, some relatives, many of the poor people began to hear him, those who were disenfranchised. At first he was ignored, just as some kind of you know kook or something. But then he hung in there and he got more converts, and he began to preach this message all through Mecca. And this message threatened the social and the economic order. At first, his uncle was able to sort of protect him, but that only lasted so long, and his uncle died. And you can understand why this threatened the Meccan society. Mecca was the most important community in Arabia. It was where the real money was, and where the real great tribal chieftains were. And so here comes Mohammed teaching the message.

There’s only one God. And these idols you’re worshiping are foolish. It’s like if I came to Orlando this weekend and I had a couple of hours to spare tomorrow, and I go out here off of the interstate at the entrance of Walt Disney, and I hold up a sign and I say, Disney is of the devil. Now I’m not going to do that. I don’t believe that. That’s not one of my beliefs. But you can imagine how that would set with people of Orlando. I mean, that hits you in the wallet, doesn’t it? If that movement got afoot. And so here, Mecca benefited economically from these activities regarding the idolatry. And it was the they were the seat of power. And here Mohammed’s trying to chop that out from underneath them.

4. The Flight to Medina and the First Islamic Community

And so after a while, he was despised by the Meccan leaders. And he has to leave Mecca for a while. They have to flee for their lives. They’re terribly persecuted. His uncle tries to protect them, then his uncle dies, and he’s really left hanging there. And that’s why the second great event in Mohammed’s life takes place, according to Muslim tradition. It’s in 622, as you can see there, about 12 years after he began to preach the belief in one God in Arabia. And what happened was he was invited to come and help the people of Medina. As you can see there on the map, on the western part of the Arabian desert, north of Mecca, is the city at first called Yathrib, which now is called Medina, which means city of the prophet, the name change.

And the leaders of Yathrib, they were in turmoil. There was a lot of tribal conflicts. And they heard about this man down in Mecca. And by the way, the people of Medina and the people of Mecca didn’t get along. And so they hear about this guy in Mecca who is out with the leaders of Mecca. And that he’s known for being this, you know, stand-up person, an impressive person. And so they invite him to move to Medina and to be an arbitrator and to settle their differences. And so this is a very important move, the flight to Medina. It’s actually the beginning of the Islamic calendar. And here’s why. You’ll see in a moment why. And when he gets there, he is successful at building unity among the people of Medina.

And he does not just become a religious influence. He eventually becomes the political leader. He becomes the leader in every way of Medina. And not only that, he begins to pull in tribes around Medina under his influence. And this is the beginning of something. It’s the beginning of the first Islamic community. How does this start? With a man who is not just a religious figure, a religious teacher, but he’s the political, the civil, the social leader who’s bringing them all together. Under his preaching, there’s only one God. Now I’m going to give a couple of quotes here, and I want to introduce the quotes for this weekend. For whatever, whether it’s the best way or not, this is how I’ve approached this subject. When I began to study Islam, I made a decision.

And so far I’ve kept it, the commitment.

And even Islamic scholars.

And I’m going to make a case about the Bible and the Quran and a case about Jesus and Muhammad. I’m going to make some conclusions and I’m going to make some propositions, and I’m going to take a position, take a stand. And you have the responsibility to judge that stand in that position, whether it’s true or not. And so I believe you’ve got to do that. But from own personal study, I decided to go to objective sources, sources about the history and the culture of Islam in Arabia. And even to Muslim sources who try to explain their beliefs and even make the case for their faith and then take the Bible on my other hand. That’s how I’ve approached it. And so the sources that I provide, these quotes that I’m going to provide throughout this series, they are not sources from people who are Christian trying to prove Islam wrong.

They are trying to be objective scholars that comment on what they saw and what they see in history, what they see in the documentation, and what they see in even modern Arab culture. For instance. This is an important point right here. In Medina, Muhammad starts the first Islamic community. In their book, Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East, Bates and Razam, as you can see that there’s one Arab scholar there, say this. Whereas in Mecca, Muhammad and his followers have given rise to a new religious sect. In Medina, they forged a state. From this point on, to be a Muslim and at once to adhere to a faith or religion, and to be a member of a political community. The dual nature of Islam was thus established early.

It remains throughout. Probably the leading scholar in the English speaking world on Islam is Bernard Lewis. He’s a Brit. He’s written many books on the study of the Middle East and on Islam in particular. And he says in his book, The Arabs and History, Islam, the offspring of Arabia and the Arabian Prophet, was not only a system of belief and cult, it was also a system of state, society, law, thought, and art. A civilization with religion as its unifying, eventually dominating factor. And so that’s why the beginning of the Islamic community of Medina is the start of the Islamic calendar. That is where Islam, in its full flowering situation, comes into existence. It’s when it really blossoms. And so, remember that. Society here in Medina was organized around the belief in Allah, the belief that Allah is the only true God, that Muhammad is his prophet, and the social order and political order and even economic order would be affected by the teachings of Mohammed in light of the revelations he got from God, according to the tradition.

But he doesn’t stay in Medina. Mohammed’s influence began to grow, and more and more tribes came under his influence. He also began to have conflicts with the Meccans.

They decide to get them back. So as Meccan caravans came by Medina, the Muslims would attack to retrieve what they believed was rightfully theirs. So we begin to see now Mohammed become a military commander, and he’s quite good at it. And the forces of Medina under Mohammed are having victory after victory after victory. Finally, through diplomacy and military force, he has pretty much got most of Western Arabia under his influence, and then he makes his move on Mecca. And in 630, as you can see there, eight years after he left.

Muhammad is very gracious. He exacts no revenge on his old enemies. He cleans the Kaaba out of the idols. He bans any idolatry. And he sets up an Islamic community and Mecca follows. Quite the turn of events, historically. So he purges it in the city, in part. And, you know, I think we have to give, you know, you know, Muslim scholars and historians, you know, you know, the room there to explain this, that the way he dealt with the Meccans in a gracious manner, instead of just, you know, taking revenge on them and slaughtering their leaders or something, he was very merciful to him that had an effect on them. And they begin to listen to him. And eventually Mecca becomes another Islamic community. Eventually he returns to Medina.

5. Politics and Religion Start Off Being One

That’s why it’s called the city of the Prophet. He dies there and is buried there. His tomb is still there today, in 632. Sunday we’re going to do a lot of comparison. We’re going to do a little bit tomorrow, actually, in the second lesson, but I want us to stop and think about something, because this is the moment that it’s introduced in the flow of history. And that is this aspect of Islam that has to be understood. And that is that politics and religion start off being one. Now we have to make an effort to understand this, those of us who live in American culture. Because we live in a culture that was that was founded upon a principle that’s really fairly unique in history. What we call the separation of church and state.

In other words, religious groups have an independence and they have a freedom. And as long as they don’t do anything greatly harmful to people, that they can practice wherever they practice, and the government protects that. And they don’t tell them what to believe and teach, and then they don’t tell the government what to do. That the civil authority is separate from religious groups, and that religious authority and civil authority are separate. And we like that in our culture. Again, that’s why I’m able to get up and do this. I didn’t have to have any government permission to do this this weekend. And we appreciate that. And we we, and really, if you understand New Testament Christianity, as New Testament Christians, we’re really the benefactors of that.

And so that we’re used to that. Understand something. That for most of the people who’ve lived in history, that’s not been the case. That religious leaders and civil leaders were married together and sometimes one in the same. The Pharaoh was the king of Egypt, but also considered to be a god. Even in the latter years in the Roman Empire, the Caesar was considered to be a lord or a god as well as the Caesar, the emperor. At other times, the religious, the religious priests would sometimes be kings, and kings would be the priests. And so there is this meshing. And it’s not just ancient times. It’s even European, modern times, you know, with the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope and the rulers of Europe being in unison and doing things together, and things like the Spanish Inquisition and so forth.

We’ll talk about this more Sunday, but for most of history, there has been no wall of separation between the civil authority and religious groups of religious authority. And so it was with Islam. And there is a belief in Islam that starts at the beginning and is very much present throughout. And that is the belief that civil authority, one of their main responsibilities is to safeguard the religion of Islam. Now, in our open society, a separation of church and state, there are Muslim people who live in the United States of America, and they are very grateful for that separation because they’re able to practice their religion. They can build mosques, they can have assemblies, they can preach and share their doctrines and things like that. And they have that opportunity.

Some places where they’ve lived, they’ve not been able to do that. And so they appreciate that, but understand something. Whenever Muslims are in the majority, they believe the government should reflect that belief system, and that the government’s responsibility is to safeguard the religion. And so no wonder, even in events in the Middle East, there is this meshing of religious authority and civil authority. Because the civil authority needs to have the right beliefs and the right ideas about religion because it’s their job to protect it. Much like what you see in Europe for centuries with the kings, you know, locking up heretics and things like that. That’s just part of the way they think about government and the way they think about religion is that there is this safeguard responsibility.

But understand the same point at the same time that most modern Muslims are quite content to live in Western society where there’s freedom of religion. They’re quite content with that. They’re quite grateful for it. But where Islam is allowed to flourish and to dominate, they believe that’s the role of the government. It should prompt us to think about Christianity. I think there’s a good reason to stop and ask that question about, well, okay, I claim to be a Christian, and I’m trying to follow New Testament Christianity. What about the government? Is the government that I live under, is it’s just does it have the responsibility of safeguarding my religion? Now we know that passages like Romans chapter 13 that tells us about you know the governing authorities are there to punish evildoers.

We know there has to be just to have a civil society, some laws in place about stealing and murder and things like that. That’s just creating, you know, order in society, and the government has to punish those evildoers. That there’s criminal activity that has to be dealt with. And there’s a there’s a morality to that. But is it the government’s job? And should Christians, New Testament Christians, expect the government to have as their responsibility to safeguard the religion of Christianity. It’s a good question. Here’s an interesting passage. In the book of Acts, the 19th chapter, a group of people in Ephesus became Christians. This is what they did. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic.

Now, before you get upset, because I know you’ve got the Harry Potter place now. This is sorcery. This is not like bad. Okay, this is like real bad stuff, okay? You got me? I’m not talking about make-believe stuff, making people into mice or something. This is like satanic stuff, okay? And many of those who have practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it told them 50,000 pieces of silver. It’s a lot of books and a lot of money. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. You know what is consistent in societies where people believe the government is to safeguard our religion? You know, one of the things consistently through history, the government does, it rounds up all the evil documents they consider to be heretical, and they destroy them.

The Roman government, at times when it would persecute Christianity, would do that. They try to round up copies of the scripture and burn them. Spanish Inquisition, known for destroying things that people would write, you know, that was the problem the early reformers had, like Martin Luther and so forth, people trying to destroy their writings. The government trying to destroy their writings. What happens here? These individual believers, they see the error of their ways. They bring their own books and they voluntarily burn their books. Who’s doing the policing here? You see, in the New Testament, we are taught that a believer safeguards his own faith and his own morality. You don’t leave that in the hands of the government. Governments are ordained of God. They have a place to keep orderliness in society.

But when it comes to protecting our faith, when it comes to guarding our morality, that’s our job. I don’t turn that over to somebody else. That’s the New Testament teaching on that. And we’d have you to see it through that example right there. Mohammed is impressive historical character. Putting aside the whole question of was he a prophet of God or not? Like many people who have come down the pike, he affected history. He called Arabs to monotheism. Ever since then, the Arab culture has been devoutly monotheistic. He’s a very effective military commander. He was a social and political reformer. People would be surprised and think this today. He brought many reforms that gave more rights and better protection to slaves and to women. Women fared much better under Islam in Arabia than it had before Islam.

He transformed Arab society. He was a visionary. He was a great organizer. He was a very charismatic leader. Very impressive. Very impressive. You’ve got to give him his due.

Conclusion

Look at this map. You see that in a matter of just about a hundred years after Mohammed’s death, that the belief of Islam and the culture that came out of Arabia has spread all the way up into the Middle East, across Northern Africa, all the way to Spain in the West, and made its way to the very doorstep of India in the East. And the Arab Islamic civilization had spread its influence that far in about a hundred years. How did that happen? How did it happen? Why did it happen? And how did it happen so rapidly? And even to this day, it dominates this part of the world. And then, as Muhammad taught his doctrines, and people began to build Islamic communities, what did they believe and what did they practice?

These are the two questions that we’ll answer in tomorrow morning’s lessons. You’ve listened so very well tonight. I commend you for taking this time, and I invite you to come back in the morning and invest more time and do this and then join a Sunday. So we’ll all grow in our, as we investigate, grow in our understanding and be better prepared to make the conclusions that are right and proper and best for us for eternity. Thank you very much. Bob.